Euro 2012 live blog: 17 June – as it happened!

Greek supporters took to the streets of Athens to celebrate their side's qualification to the knock-out stages. Photograph: Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images

Morning: Be honest - who predicted that Greece and the Czech Republic would the two teams to go through from Group A? Not many of us here. Last night's games were extraordinary - not in terms of the football necessarily, though that was interesting enough but in terms of a total swing in expectations. Russia departing from a tournament some thought they might win has to rank as hell of a shock. Still, the scenes in Greece after the win were heart-warming, given the trouble their country is in, as Associated Press are reporting.

Thousands poured into Athens' central Omonia Square on Saturday waving Greek flags, lighting green and red flares and setting off firecrackers amid the din of hundreds of honking cars and renditions of the national anthem in a spontaneous outpouring of patriotic fervor.

Clouds of acrid smoke wafted through the square as motorcyclists spun their tires. Shirtless revelers danced in the street, halting traffic, but motorists caught up in the celebratory atmosphere weren't all that bothered, blasting their horns in approval.

On the eve of pivotal elections that could decide their economic fate, the win gave ordinary Greeks a chance to exhibit a little in-your-face swagger, thumb their nose at Europe and push back at being painted as the continent's deadbeats.

The victory was all that much sweeter because it came in true underdog style, bringing back memories of Greece's improbable run eight years ago, when they won the European championship.

"The result is a message to politicians, to everyone that Greece won't die and never bows to anyone," said Chris Mbogosian, 62.

"Greeks have heart and they show it when things get tough, we pull together in times of crisis," said 29-year-old Vasilis Papaspyliotopoulos, standing amid the crowd with the Greek flag draped across his shoulders.

Revelers broke into chants of "bring on the Germans", relishing the prospect of meeting the country footing most of the bill for their multibillion-euro bailout and being their most outspoken critic in a quarterfinal showdown with political connotations.

"It's a result that shows our country is strong," said Stavros Helmis, 26. "Sport may not be the most serious thing, but it lifts our spirits."

TB

10.32am: A quick note about plans today. Tonight, we'll be minute-by-minute-ing Portugal v Holland and Denmark v Germany. There's an England press conference at 12.30pm BST where Wayne Rooney is expected to be put up. Before that, our chief sports correspondent Richard Williams is in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and will be answering your questions from noon (BST) in our live webchat. Feel free to leave him some questions over there. TB

10.36am: A quick trawl of the wires, rehashed here and presented as our own work:

Roy Keane is on the attack again. He's written in today's super soaraway Sunday Sun: "You'll never beat the Irish? It's time for that song to be put away because, at the moment, everyone is beating them. I'm sick of this 'win, lose, we're on the booze' mentality. It has to change."

Striker Andriy Shevchenko does not believe Ukraine should focus too much on the return of Wayne Rooney. "We will see what happens with Rooney. But this is a player who hasn't played for a month now."

Zlatan Ibrahimovic said he was "even more motivated" to continue playing for Sweden after defeats by Ukraine and England ended their hopes at Euro 2012. "It means nothing in my mind to think negatively I think the opposite - we'll keep going. I get angry inside and I get even more motivated. It's not positive, what has happened here, but it has that effect on me," he said.

After being jeered by fans earlier in the campaign, Czech Republic coach Michal Bilek is probably feeling a little more pleased with things after last night. "There are some fans who show you from the beginning the are not rooting for you as a person. There is nothing I can do about it," he said. But now he's added: "We won the two matches we had to and we are going on. Seeing the fans happy gives us a lot of strength." TB

11.09am: The nice chaps at 101 Great Goals have got in touch to alert us to a video of the famous (it says here) Greek commentator Giorgos Helakis going mad over Giogos Karagounis' winner against Russia. "Karagounis rips up the Russians like sardines," he yells, but in Greek. TB

11.38am: Following the biblical storm during the Ukraine v France game, England have been asked not to train on the pitch ahead of their crunch match against the hosts. Instead, they will train at their HQ in Krakow before flying into Donetsk. It is also anticipated the England players will embark on a walk-round of the stadium, even though it is only seven days previously that they played there. Does it really matter if they get a kick-about in the stadium? Not sure. Still, they'll get a nice tour instead, perhaps even with a visit to the gift shop. TB

11.43am: A quick snap: Uefa have opened disciplinary proceedings against the FA over the behaviour of England supporters during the match against Sweden. Apparently, some supporters attempted a pitch invasion. TB

11.55am: Richard Williams is just about ready to being his webchat - so this live blog will quieten down for a bit. Head over to it here, as our man in Kharkiv answers your questions, while also looking forward to all the Group B action tonight. TB

I don't give a shit who wins it now. I'm going on holiday. Hopefully in Sweden but if the weather's bad I've got an aeroplane ready

TB

12.32pm: Wayne Rooney (and his remarkable hair) is talking to the ladies and gentlemen of the press. Some edited highlights: "I'm ready and excited. I'm not going to win Euros on my own. There are 23 players. The forwards have done well". He adds that he's delighted to be back involved and says that, while the Ukraine will be a tough challenge, England need to be winning trophies.

Interestingly, in talking about Roy Hodgson, he has what appears to be a dig at Fabio Capello's regime. He says of the coaching staff: "It helps we're all English. There are no words lost in translation." TB

12.33pm: More from Rooney, he says England will be able to deal with playing in what will potentially be a hostile environment against Ukraine. He added that, despite missing the first two matches of this tournament thanks to the ban he received, he has "no problems with [his] attitude or temperament." TB

1.19pm: The Czech Republic captain Tomas Rosicky remains a doubt for the quarter-finals after an achilles tendon injury forced him to miss his team's 1-0 victory over Poland. Rosicky picked up the injury during Tuesday's 2-1 win against Greece and hasn't trained since. He was ruled out hours before Saturday's game in Wroclaw and his place in the midfield went to Daniel Kolar. Rosicky says he has a chance to recover in time for the quarter-final but adds "the chance is not big." TB

1.24pm: An email: "Tom, anyone got a reason why the kick off times have changed for these final group matches?" asks Trevor Lazzari. "Now both matches are being played at the same time, thunderstorms permitting of course!" Well, the reason is to keep both ties alive. If they reverted back to two different kick-off times, the result of the earlier game could make the result of the later game irrelevant. More sinisterly, it could also lead to the teams in the later games 'doing favours' to teams in the earlier games to ensure their qualification.

"We acknowledge Uefa's statement of today, and we will respond accordingly," said an FA spokeman. [BG]

2.07pm: Meanwhile back in Poland, Republic of Ireland centre-half Richard Dunne has been discussing his side's embarrassment at the hands of Spain and was noticably downbeat.

"It's heartbreaking," he said. "It's your dream to go and play in the championships and play well and be brilliant, and it's just not happened for us, so it's heartbreaking. As much as we wanted to do well, we know we haven't. We are playing against teams that are better than us and it's hard to accept that our best at the moment isn't good enough."

On the subjkect of the Republic of Ireland's uncharacteristic lack of resilience against Croatia and Spain, not to mention their new habit of conceding early goals, Dunne said: "It might have been a different tournament if we got through the first 10 minutes in both games. That's the one regret - if we could have got through them, we might have seen a different game, we might have grown a little bit. We have just not had the chance.

"We did everything we possibly could. You have to hold your hands up. Our normal game is pressure, pressure, pressure and ... the teams are too good."

Speaking about Ireland remaining group game against Italy, which the Italians must win while hoping the Spain v Croatia result goes in their favour if they are to avoid an early trip home, Dunne said: "We don't want to go home because we don't want to go home feeling like we are. If we win on Monday night, it restores a bit of pride, not just in Irish football, but in ourselves. There's more hurt than anyone can imagine, so for ourselves, we need to win a game. We need to make sure we can get through the first 10 minutes without conceding a goal.

"It's another game, we're representing our country so, regardless of how we feel inside, we have to go and give 100 per cent and make sure we turn the hurt into passion and win the game." [BG]

2.28pm: An email from John Foreman, who says he was at England v Sweden, about the 'pitch invasion': "I was in the stadium on Friday night. A few English supporters went over the barrier and danced about a bit. Then returned to their seats. The end had English flags laid down on the running track. Now in Istanbul airport with a lot of dejected Swedes!" TB

2.33pm: Time to look forward to tonight and let's hope we don't get a repeat of the scenes* that shaped the 2006 World Cup match between Portugal v Holland. Six years ago this was an utter humdinger with a total of four red cards, and a referee who lost the run of things. Here's the first par of Michael Walker's report, which is well worth a read. It's a work of art.

An evening of mayhem and spite, sometimes synchronised cheating and complaining - and one goal - ended with nine men against nine men, 16 additional bookings, no handshake between the distinguished managers Luiz Felipe Scolari and Marco van Basten, at least on the pitch, and Portugal in the quarter-final against England in Gelsenkirchen on Saturday afternoon. It was a night when a lot of people forgot a lot of things, not least how to behavea but also that the logo of this tournament is A Time To Make Friends.

* Guardian live blog reporter adopts sanctimonious tone required of all people writing about a massive football dust-up. Guardian live blog reporter actually wants full repeat, plus extras and director's cut of said dust-up. TB

2.40pm: Thomas Krantz has, helpfully, emailed in with a video clip of all the fouls in that Holland v Portugal game in 2006. It's like warfare. TB

2.50pm: Both having been sent to the stands, there wasn't a lot else for Deco and Gio van Bronckhorst to do but have a natter about the ref.

3.20pm: Another great quote today, following Zlatan's magnificence. Andrei Arshavin has reportedly said this to Russian fans at the airport: "It's not our problem we didn't meet your expectations. It's your problem." TB

3.23pm: A run through of the permuations, courtesy of Uefa: Germany are not quite through, but will be as group winners (meaning a match against Greece in Gdansk) if they draw. They will be knocked out, though, if they lose to Denmark by any result other than a one-goal defeat in which Germany score at least two (i.e. they lose 3-2, 4-3, 5-4 etc) and Portugal win.

Denmark will progress with any win. A draw will only be good enough if Portugal lose. If Denmark lose they are out.

Portugal will be through with victory unless Denmark win by a one-goal margin (other than 2-1 and 1-0). They will progress with a draw unless Denmark win. Portugal will also be through if they lose by a one-goal margin and Denmark are also beaten.

The Netherlands must win by a two-goal margin and hope Denmark also lose to finish second and take on the Czech Republic in Warsaw.

Confused? TB

4.13pm: Ukraine striker Andriy Shevchenko is a doubt to face England in Tuesday's Euro 2012 Group D match due to injury, a Ukraine football association spokesman has said. And with that, we're going to shut the live blog down. Jacob Steinberg will have commentary Portugal v Holland from 7.45pm, while Ian McCourt will be looking after Denmark v Germany from the same time. See you all tomorrow. TB